Home Theaters

Several weeks ago the components for a Home Theater PC were discussed, with thoughts on possible choices of case, motherboard/processor combinations, and perhaps the most important item, a tuner or pair of tuners. Two tuners are necessary for those who wish to be able to watch one program while recording another, or recording two programs while another source is being used.

Over at Ars Technica an article recently gave a rundown on the components the editors would use on a HTPC/DVR, and for the most part, I would agree with the assessments made. Where differences are found is in the tuners, where the Ars article calls for tuners by Hauppauge, a well known name in the PC television tuner arena. The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 tuners are PCIe, which allows a very fast connection for all data, however, if a PCI connection is needed the WinTV-HVR-1600 can be used, which is functionally identical.

When making my recommendations, I chose units from ATI, which I knew to be of good quality, and few conflicts when installing with either Linux or Windows solutions. I knew of the Hauppauge models, but had heard several bad things about drivers. Those problems seem to have been resolved, as the recommendation was without reservation, so I will go with their recommendation, as the feature set of these models exceeds the ATI models by a fair amount.

The other area of divergence was in the processor needed. I tend to go a tad overboard (but just a tad), as I always like to be sure I am going to cover the very worst circumstances and still have optimal performance. Here I will stay opposed to their recommendation of a dual core Athlon64 5200, as I can see problems when recording two HD data streams and watching a third HD source from elsewhere, like a Blu-ray movie on disc. Remember that the system is juggling 3 streams of data, using part of the CPUs power to deliver sound, and helping with video decoding if the onboard video is being relied upon. The last thing I would want is a mangled recording of something not to be re-broadcast for some time.

So for a system where the highest level of HD is being used (1080i), I would think a quad core would give the best results, especially if using Windows as the operating system - it always has lots of overhead with running processes started and completed at times unable to be controlled by the user. There is also a possibility that a tri core would do it, but right now the AMD pricing structure dictates that anyone who isn’t brain would pay the extra $20-$25, and get the 4th core.

make sure your motherboard can handle the power requirements of the processor chosen

When I made the last set of choices, I was calling for a motherboard using the 780 chipset from AMD, and that was a good choice for a dual core CPU. The time since has seen quad cores come out, and down in price, so they have become a choice instead, for the reasons stated above, Other factors have been discovered since the 780 chipset recommendation, and this may not be the best choice if a quad core PCU is used. It appears that not many of the 780 chipset boards can supply enough clean power for the quad core chips. There are some manufacturers that say the board is quad core compatible, but when checking further it is found that the power delivery system was skimped on, and should not be used with a Phenom processor. Check to make sure so that no heap of useless fiberglass and metal is created in your lab, Dr, Funkenstein.

As always, a good power supply is needed, and will further help with the possible overheating, as enough power actually creates less heat, and quality supplies usually have better heat extraction.

Sound is another area where differences in taste will make users wish for better than onboard sound. This may cause other changes to need to be made. MicroATX  motherboards will typically be hard to get a sound card in, after adding a higher quality video solution and the two tuners, so a move to a larger case and ATX motherboard may be dictated.

I will be reporting the the latest in sound cards in the nest few days, including the obvious choices from Creative, and lesser known but high quality cards from Asus and M-Audio.

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